Right now, if you're a subscriber, it costs you $9.99 a month to stream video and check out up to one DVD at a time and $14.99 a month to stream video and check out up to two DVDs at a time from the popular Los Gatos-based Internet subscription service.
But starting Sept. 1, the two options will increase by $5.99 and $4.99, respectively, costing $15.98 and $19.98 a month, company officials announced Tuesday.
New subscribers will see the new price changes immediately, according to a press release on the company's Web site.
On the company's blog, Jessie Becker explained Netflix is launching new DVD-only plans for $7.99 a month for one DVD out at a time and $11.99 a month for two DVDs out at a time and that separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans will help the company better reflect the costs of the services and give customers more options.
"Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs," Becker wrote in trying to explain the changes.
More than 4,680 comments had been posted at the end of the blog, the majority of customers upset with the changes.
Calls to Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey were not immediately returned by the time of this posting.
